Meet The Man Behind The Music Of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’: Ian Eisendrath

Netflix’s animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, has become a pop culture phenomenon. It’s impossible to ignore its global sensation, as it hit No. 1 on the streaming network for several weeks, topped the music charts with its soundtrack, was the top topic on every social media platform, and is even being promoted by Netflix for Oscar submissions for Best Original Song.

Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the film follows a K-pop girl group who moonlight as demon hunters, protecting humanity against supernatural threats. They face their biggest threat from a rival group, the Saja Boys, who are demons in disguise.

The music has been heavily praised by critics, fans, and those in the K-pop industry, including BTS, MonstaX, EXO, Enhypen, Wonho, ITZY, and more. Executive music producer Ian Eisendrath is amazed by the reception because he was so focused on the task at hand during production that he didn’t think about the potential reactions.

“When you work on these things, you’re in a tunnel,” Eisendrath says over Zoom. “You’re almost blind [because] you’re moving forward and dealing with all of the challenges of making something original. Having the film receive the way it is, paying off emotionally, and speaking to a contemporary audience is so thrilling.”

As executive music producer, Eisendrath wore many hats for the film: conductor, arranger, music and vocal producer, and more. He’s been praised by the directors and his music team as the reason for the success of the music and their performances. Eisendrath says it was a team effort.

“I was just the luckiest person,” he says. “The main thing I got to do was harness all of the incredible creativity, experience, and authenticity of these artists. That was my favorite thing. How do we bring these hitmakers from the pop world into a theatrical world while letting them do the thing they do best?”

In the early stages of KPop Demon Hunters, Kang and Appelhans discussed the film being a non-traditional musical, which meant the music had no direct involvement with the storytelling; however, this proved to be difficult for a movie centering on K-pop idols. They had to connect the music with the story, which is where Eisendrath came in.

The Olivier Award-winning, Grammy-nominated music producer was first approached by Spring Aspers, President of Music at Sony Motion Picture Group, to work on Kpop Demon Hunters, after they had worked together on Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Eisendrath was no stranger to tying in musicals with film and television. He had worked as the music supervisor, arranger, and conductor for the critically-acclaimed Broadway musical Come From Away, and as executive music producer for Disney’s live-action Snow White, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and Sony Pictures’ Lyle Lyle Crocodile. He knew how to connect music into the story and build it from there, because he’s always been interested in this kind of storytelling.

“I went to the University of Michigan School of Music and started as a theater-directing and music major,” he explains. “I’ve always been interested in music dramaturgy – what a song, both musically and lyrically, can do for the narrative experience. I’ve always been interested in how we make musical theater and film musicals, all of which reach an audience beyond your typical Broadway or musical-loving audience.”

He understands the first song is key to gaining the audience’s trust and, from there, creating moments where the characters’ singing feels earned, welcomed, and organic. Working closely with the directorial team and the music team, he collaborated with both to blend their efforts and tell the story effectively.

“My background was the directing side and the music side,” he describes. “With all the stuff I’ve done in theatre, it’s the same job as bringing everything together. I truly love the process on the mixing and music editorial side and working with all of these artists who all have their specialty and learning to speak their [music] language and understanding each person’s aesthetic, paradigm, and how we bring that all together.”

Eisendrath teamed up with K-pop music giants THEBLACKLABEL and other songwriters to craft lyrics that sound like pop music, while also uncovering character development and story. He explains, “[The movie leads] are singers, and a large percentage of the songs are performances. However, you can’t just sing a song. If you’re going to take up two to four minutes of screen time, even if it’s in performance, there needs to be something serving the story, the action, the dramatic arc of the characters, the microcosm of the moment, and then the whole arc of the film itself. It was wonderful wrestling as a team to figure out where that line was.”

The team wrote several songs for each scene, but as the story evolved, so did the lyrics and sound. Over the course of three years, the story changed the vibe, timing, and everything, but more songs continued to emerge organically with it all.

“The other thing that was really special about this was the alchemy of the number of songwriting voices that were brought to this film,” He says, crediting Aspers for her constant guidance through it. “It felt like the Avengers of pop [music]. It was an amazing team. It was a wonderful community and collaboration.”

Eisendrath was also excited to be working in the Korean pop world. He listened to some songs before signing onto the project and thought it could be a theatrical genre, hoping someone would adapt it into a musical or film. But when he was hired onto the project, he began to immerse himself in the K-pop world. Kang and the songwriters sent him several K-pop playlists to listen to. The Spotify algorithm then showed him several “amazing” K-pop playlists.

“I listened to it all,” he says enthusiastically. “Honestly, the more I got to know [the music, I recognized] there’s a vibe. There is sort of this EDM dance element to it, which I love, and highly-edited, multi-layered vocals. I was instantly attracted [to it]. This is going to be so amazing for the film.”

He became a student of the genre, learning about the music in depth, including the various types of K-pop styles. He noticed how huge, emotional, and over-the-top it was in a theatrical way, which made it perfect for the theatre.

“It’s perfect for characters to sing and dance to,” he says. “There’s such variety. These tracks are huge—hundreds and hundreds of vocal tracks on every song. There are so many elements in these tracks. We had a big choir ensemble that sang on many of the tracks.”

He has become a fan of almost every K-pop group – both past and present, including IDLE (formerly (G)IDLE), BLACKPINK, BTS, and Stray Kids. He emphasized that he loves them all and couldn’t list them all, as there are so many groups.

“There’s just so much great stuff out there,” he admits. “I fell in love with everything, but that’s how I am when I’m doing these projects. My career has involved many projects with a specific musical heritage and culture. I don’t approach it with ‘What do I love or what I don’t love?’ It’s more like an obsession with getting to know it. I just fell in love with so many groups.”

It also includes TWICE, who worked on the soundtrack version of “Takedown.” Eisendrath states that the decision to have three members of TWICE participate in the film was made possible by Aspers and Dana Sano, Executive Vice President of Film & Television.

“The two of them sought out TWICE and brought them to us,” says Eisendrath. “It was a game changer for me. This was the biggest [indicator] that we might be on the right track because my biggest fear was that this would not land with the K-pop audience. The fact that TWICE was excited and wanted to perform a song, [I thought], ‘Okay, we’re going in the right direction.’ They’re such a natural choice for this. It’s incredible.”

Since the film and its music have garnered a lot of attention, many speculate that a sequel is imminent. When asked if he thought about other Korean artists that he’d be interested in collaborating with for the film or in other outside projects, he hasn’t thought that far ahead yet – even hypothetically. He is interested in exploring the other sub-genres of K-pop, but it would depend on the story.

“The story drives everything and the content will dictate form,” Eisendrath says. “That would all depend on what the story is, who is singing, what they need, and then from there, all the references will add up.”